


Different Me, Different You, Same Us

by MoonPrincessCastiel



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Children of Earth Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-23
Updated: 2015-01-23
Packaged: 2018-03-08 19:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3220490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonPrincessCastiel/pseuds/MoonPrincessCastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: After the 'miracle' ended Jack heard Ianto's voice. Through a crack in Time & Space. A Ianto in another dimension. A Ianto without a Jack. What does Fate have in store for them? Post CoE/MD. A fix-it of sorts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Different Me, Different You, Same Us

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: possible spoilers for everything Torchwood. Many liberties taken with possible plot points in MD. And no, I haven't watched it and have no intention to. Owen, Toshiko and Ianto are Classic Torchwood FOREVER! :D

O_O_O

The chaos that had become the miracle finally ended. Captain Jack Harkness stood next to Gwen Cooper as they gazed at the people around them. It had started in Cardiff and ended in Cardiff.

Jack waited until Gwen was preoccupied then he slipped away.

He found himself walking along the Plass reminiscing. It had only been a few years but it felt like a lifetime had passed since Owen, Tosh... Ianto. He sighed as he walked along the path he knew so well. There were so many memories, good and bad, of this city. It had been his home for so long. His entire life was in this city, this Cardiff. As he walked he recalled the first time he had set foot in the city. He had been waiting for The Doctor. He had found something so much more special.

His memories were all he had to tie him to this place and he would do anything to keep them forever.

The old HUB had been cordoned off right after the 456 had been defeated. Even now, a few years later, there was a fence surrounding the spot. Signs that read No Trespassing/Off Limits decorated the chain links.

It was a memorial to all the people that had died because of Torchwood.

After a few minutes he made his way back to Gwen. He didn't want her to worry. Not after everything that had happened.

"Hey," Gwen said with a smile.

"Hey."

"You okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

She reached out and touched his arm. "Being back here. Surrounded by the ghosts of Torchwood."

"Yeah well-"

" _Okay, let's finish up. I have a million things to do."_

"Jack?"

"I heard it too."

Jack and Gwen turned, guns in hand, and looked for the source of the voice.

Not just any voice.

Owen's voice.

" _Then move your skinny arse and pick that up."_

" _Oi!"_

Toshiko. Tosh and Owen.

Voices of the dead.

"Jack, what's going on? Is it the Rift?"

"No, can't be," he replied. "Ianto sealed the Rift. I told you about that."

"The séance at the pub? Yeah." Gwen looked around. "So what are we hearing then?"

"Echoes of the past. Residual Rift energy. Memories made real. Take your pick."

"Yo, Captain, Cooper!"

Rex joined them and looked at their guns.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

" _You two, if you're quite done. I'd really like to get back."_

Jack closed his eyes. "Ianto..." He whispered the name reverently, like it was a prayer.

"What the hell was that?" Rex demanded. He lifted his own gun and looked around.

" _Did you hear that?"_

" _Yeah, voices."_

"Oh God," Gwen moaned. She covered her face and tried to blink back tears.

" _Gwen? What is it?"_

She jerked at the sound of Ianto speaking directly to her. He was dead. They ALL were dead.

" _I heard it, Ianto. Voices."_

That was HER voice!

" _Whoa, this is some crazy shit! You guys, look!"_

Gwen, Jack and Rex turned as one. Owen, Tosh and Gwen stared back at them.

"Oh God..." the two Gwens said in unison.

Jack appraised the three figures carefully. Unlike that time at the House of the Dead these apparitions were transparent.

"Jack?" Gwen said, her voice trembling. "What is this? What's happening?"

"Who are they?" Rex asked.

" _Who are we?"_ Owen snapped. _"Who the hell are YOU?"_

Yep. That was Owen alright. No one else could put THAT much snark into two simple questions.

"Jack?" Gwen was getting frantic. It was bad enough that their friends were dead but did they have to see their ghosts? And why did one of them look like HER?

"I don't know Gwen. I don't-"

" _Jack."_

The immortal's breath caught in his throat as a young man in a dark suit stepped from behind Owen. He was as transparent as the others but that didn't stop Jack's heart from pounding inside his chest.

"Ianto."

The image of his dead lover slowly moved forward until he stood toe to toe with the Captain.

" _I'm either dreaming or someone is playing the most tasteless joke on me."_ Ianto cocked his head to the side as he studied the other.

"You're dead," came the flat reply.

" _Oh? You think?"_

"I know. I was there. Both times."

Ianto pursed his lips. _"That's funny because the last time I saw YOU was the day that your brother shot me. Then you pulled the Tragic Romantic Hero act and sacrificed yourself for me."_

"What?"

" _Ianto, look at these readings!"_ Tosh said.

Gwen didn't even try to stifle the whimpers that leaked from her mouth. The last few years all she had thought about was WHY they all died. Torchwood. Just being a part of that world had gotten them all killed. It wasn't fair. All of them had had so much life left to live.

The image of Ianto turned towards the image of Tosh and looked down at the device in her hands.

" _Well that explains a lot."_ He returned his gaze to Jack. _"It would appear that it_ is _a joke. A cosmic joke."_

"What are you-"

" _The wall between our dimensions has been cracked."_

Jack staggered back.

"Oh my God."

They weren't ghosts. They were real. Another dimension.

Ianto looked at him, a strange expression on his face.

" _Jack."_ He stepped close again and raised his hand.

Jack raised his hand as well but all he met was air as their hands passed through one another. He choked back a sob.

"Why can't I touch you?" he whispered.

" _Because it's just a crack. A tiny fracture in the wall."_ Ianto swallowed hard. _"This isn't fair. Two years of trying to move on and now THIS. Is this the price I pay for_ your _sacrifice? To be tormented by what I could have had?"_

"My sacrifice..." Jack said. "What sacrifice?"

A soft beep came from Tosh's device.

" _It's closing,"_ Tosh said. She looked around warily.

"Ianto?"

" _Jack..."_

And just like that Ianto, Owen, Tosh and the other Gwen vanished. As if they hadn't been there at all.

O_O_O

"Jack, what is going on?"

He heaved a sigh as he slumped in his chair. They were gathered in a hotel room. The rest of the world was busy both celebrating the end of the miracle and mourning the dead. But Torchwood never got a break. Torchwood was always on the clock.

"Captain Harkness!"

"If you both would just shut up."

It was not shouted, his voice wasn't even raised but it was effective in silencing them.

Jack rubbed his temples for a minute as he gathered his thoughts. This was difficult for him, seeing the three people whose deaths he felt more keenly than others (except for little Steven's).

"Okay," he began. "They were from another dimension. Dimensions are created by every decision we make as well as the choices we don't. For example, let's say that you are at a crossroads. Do you go left, right, backwards or forward? Each option creates a different version of reality."

"But how are we able to see them?" Gwen asked.

Jack stood and went to the small sink by the bathroom. He turned on the faucet and splashed his face with cold water. He patted his face dry then turned back to them.

"Think of each dimension as a room in a hotel." He held up a hand to forestall the joke Rex was about to make. "What separates one room from the next?"

"A wall," Rex said irritably.

"That's right. A wall." Jack walked back to the far bed and sat down next to Gwen. "Sometimes there are cracks in the walls and this allows the dimensions to coexist in the same space."

"But why now?" Gwen asked.

"Probably the result of our defeating the 'miracle'," Jack said, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm. "Or it could be something completely unrelated. There's really no way to know."

"Okay," she said slowly. "So what can we do?"

He took a deep breath. "Nothing."

"What? But Jack! We're talking about Owen, Tos-"

"Gwen," he cut her off. "The walls were sealed. If there was a crack, it's probably been repaired by now too. Besides, even if it isn't, it's not THEM."

"So what, we just forget what we saw?"

"Yeah Gwen. We do what we have to. We move on."

"Again."

"Yeah. Again."

O_O_O

A week passed before the crack reappeared. This time it happened on the Plass just a few minutes from the HUB.

" _Jack."_

Ianto moved to stand beside him. Like before he was transparent.

"Love the suit." Jack said.

" _Thank you. Your coat looks different."_

"That's because the other one was... ruined. I had to make do with what the tailor on Segeth III put together. Fair job, I think."

Ianto smiled and reached out his hand. It passed right over Jack's shoulder and the Captain shuddered.

" _You said I died twice. What did you mean?"_

Jack sighed. "2009 a race known on Earth as the 456 came to take away-"

" _10% of the world's children."_ Ianto nodded. _"Happened to us too. Only YOU weren't there."_

"You went with me to try to talk to them and they released some sort of poison in the building."

" _Thames House. I went there alone. I couldn't risk the others."_

"You died in my arms."

Ianto looked out at the bay. _"I lost you when Gray came."_

"Tell me."

" _You had been buried alive in the past and then frozen by Torchwood. He got into the HUB. He hid from us as Tosh, Gwen and Captain Hart took some Weevils down to the cells. He locked them up then came upstairs. I was using Tosh's computer to try to find you. I got shot instead."_

"Here it was Tosh he shot." Jack leaned back against the railing. "You went downstairs with the others."

" _It was supposed to be me but Gwen was worried I'd kill Hart so she told me to stay and look for you."_

"What happened to me?"

Ianto drew in a slow breath. _"After you got free from the cryogenic chamber you sent Hart to help Owen. Saved his life, actually. Then you, Tosh and Gwen came upstairs and found me bleeding out in the autopsy bay."_

Jack really didn't want to picture that. He could still remember finding Toshiko, covered in blood. Had it been Ianto he was certain he would have gone mad. Gray would never have been frozen. Jack would have killed him with his bare hands.

" _You started crying, telling me it would be alright. You begged me to not die. That you loved me."_

Jack could hear the tears in Ianto's voice. They were in his own eyes.

" _Then you froze. Just for a minute. Next thing we knew, you were talking to yourself."_

"I what?"

" _You said_ 'I'll do anything if you just save him. Please, you owe me that much.' _Then you nodded and kissed me."_ Ianto looked at him. _"You kissed me and that changed us. You became like me and I became like you. Then you smiled at me, told Hart to take care of Gray and then... You died."_

Jack closed his eyes. The other him had given up immortality to save Ianto. In doing so he had forced that horrible curse onto his lover. But as he thought of it, Jack realized that if he had been in that Jack's place he would have done the same thing. He would have gladly given up everything for Ianto. He had wanted to that day in the Thames House but he had been denied that right.

" _I refused to believe it. I sat by your side, holding your hand, for days. After the fifth day you began to rot. It wasn't until the eighth day though that I accepted it. You were gone. And I was immortal."_

"Ianto..."

His lover glanced behind him. Jack could just make out the outline of the Tourist office in the other dimension.

" _The crack is closing."_

Ianto turned towards him. They shared a look that only they could understand.

" _I love you."_

"I'm not him. Not your Jack."

A small smile graced that familiar face.

" _I think that maybe you are."_

Then he faded away.

O_O_O

Two days later Ianto appeared in Jack's hotel room.

" _Why is this still happening?"_

"I dunno." Jack sat down on the bed next to his lover. "How do we appear to you?"

" _Like I'm seeing your reflection in a window."_

" _How did you know I was here?"_

Ianto slowly circled the room. _"The crack shows up on our monitors. It coincides with a Rift spike. Naturally we have to investigate. But the crack didn't register until AFTER we got here."_

"Tell me about your world."

" _Why?"_ Ianto asked.

"I'm curious as to where the split occurred. Where our dimensions parted. Usually you can figure it out."

" _And if we can't? What then?"_

"Then at least we get to know a little bit more about each others worlds."

So they spoke. They talked for over an hour and learned that until Gray had set the Weevils loose in the HUB the two dimensions had been exactly the same. The critical element was who went with Gwen and Hart down to the vaults.

Jack had wanted to save Toshiko but he hadn't even thought about asking Time and Space for help. All he had done was hold her as she died. If it had been Ianto though... He would have moved Heaven and Earth to save him. And in another life, he had.

This was his Ianto. This is the person that his Ianto would have become if he had survived. But there was one thing that puzzled him.

"You seem so empty." Jack flitted his fingers over Ianto's hand. "What happened to you? Even losing me shouldn't have done that."

" _Oh?"_ Ianto smiled sadly. _"My father cared more about himself than my mother. She died thinking no one loved her. Then my father died alone. My sister and I stopped being a family. Then Canary Wharf happened. I lost Lisa twice. I lost you."_ Ianto's voice cracked. _"Then I was forced to make a choice."_

"The 456?"

Ianto nodded. _"I had to choose. One child or millions."_

"What did you do?"

" _I pulled a random child off the street. A little girl who'd gotten lost."_ Tears had started to fall down the young man's face. _"Gwen refused to be in the room. Tosh and Owen could barely look at me. I- I couldn't even ask her her name."_

"I used my grandson," Jack said softly.

Ianto raised his face to look at him.

" _Oh Jack..."_

"Did not knowing her name make it easier?"

" _No. No it didn't. Made it worse. We didn't know what to put on the gravestone."_

Jack wanted to hold him. He settled for scooting closer.

O_O_O

It continued on like this for the next few months. There was no pattern, no rhyme or reason. The crack opened at various intervals and in various locations. Sometimes the whole team was there, other times only Ianto. The others -Gwen, Rex- they never saw any of them if Jack wasn't with them. There was something that kept the crack open. That something seemed to Jack. It was as if he had become an anchor between the two worlds.

Gwen wondered if it was good for Jack to talk to Ianto as he did each time. She could see that he was getting close to the other man and it concerned her. From what she'd been able to learn through her research this crack in the dimensional wall wouldn't last forever. Eventually it would seal itself and Jack would lose Ianto all over again.

This time it might destroy him completely.

O_O_O

Somewhere far away but oh so close...

"Ianto."

"What is it Tosh?"

"The wall is slowly healing itself. The crack will soon be gone."

Ianto was silent as he digested this information.

"How soon?"

"The best answer I can give you is a few weeks to a few months."

He reached for his coffee and sipped it.

It hurt. He had gotten accustomed to having Jack back in some form. To not have him anymore, even if he couldn't touch him, was unbearable.

"Any way to keep it open?"

Tosh hesitated. "Ianto, we all know you miss him but this isn't the way to do this."

"Do what?"

"You need to let him go."

"I love him."

"I know but no matter how similar he is to our Jack there's nothing we can do." She placed a hand over his. "He's there and you're here. I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do. The crack in the wall will close and I can't stop it."

She stood and walked out of the office. Ianto closed his eyes.

Tosh was right but he didn't care. He had Jack back. Even if it was over too soon he wasn't going to just give it up.

"Jack," he murmured. "How can I give up when I found you again?"

He knew that the others felt the same as Tosh. In the last three months there had been seventy-three dimensional rift spikes. Jack had been at each location.

Gwen had tried to talk to him. She said she was worried that he was getting too attached to someone he could never be with. She was right. He had become attached. But he couldn't help it. His love for Jack had transcended every single boundary.

This other Jack WAS his Jack. Everything that had happened before Gray ruined their lives was exactly the same.

They had talked at length and in great detail. He smiled as he recalled their first date. Jack remembered it too.

Dinner at a little diner outside of town. An old movie at the theater. Then they had spent the night at a hotel, where they made love until dawn. The date hadn't happened until after Tommy Brockless had been returned to the past. Ianto had made him wait. Not as punishment but because they had both needed to think. Not to mention just how busy they had been.

They had shared more memories these last few months. Memories of dates, of arguments and of Torchwood. They both could remember speaking the same words and doing the same things.

He was not that Jack's Ianto and that Jack was not his. But then again, they were.

And they belonged together.

So how could he give this up?

O_O_O

Four months, three days since the two dimensions first met.

Jack and Ianto had shared their stories and knew each other better than they even had before. Every single detail of their lives BEFORE Gray attacked the HUB was the exact same. They knew each other in a way more intimate than sex.

And they had fallen in love all over again.

Which was what made this time so much more painful.

Because it was about to end. The crack -which had become visible to them all- had begun to heal. It was closing up for the last time.

" _No! It's too soon!"_ Ianto pressed his hands against the invisible wall.

"Ianto!" Jack slammed his fist just on the other side.

Only a fraction of an inch separated them. But it was too much.

"IANTO!"

Tears streamed down Jack's face. This couldn't be happening, he couldn't do this. He couldn't say goodbye.

" _Not yet,"_ Ianto whispered. _"Please not yet."_

"Ianto." Jack placed both his hands flat on the wall. He could actually FEEL Ianto's breath on his face, HEAR his heart beat. It wasn't _fair_.

"I can't lose you, Ianto. Not again." He pressed his forehead on the wall. "I just got you back."

" _Jack, I love you. I always will. Please remember that."_

The older immortal closed his eyes. "You'll never be a blip in time Ianto Jones. Not for me."

Ianto stepped back from the wall. He could hear the crack as it sealed itself back up.

" _Jack..."_

"I'll find you."

" _No, Jack. Just say goodbye."_

This was killing them both. They had met once and fallen in love, albeit in a complicated way. Neither really sure what they felt for the other. It had been an almost endless dance of tension and affection. One had been afraid to say the words while the other had been devastated at hearing them. Now they had met and fallen in love again and it was killing them.

"I promise you, Ianto Jones," Jack said. "I will find a way back to you."

Ianto ignored the voices of the others on both sides. It was foolish, he knew, to place his heart and hope on such a promise but he didn't care. He loved this man more than he had loved even Lisa. If he could, he would have crossed Time and Space for Jack.

" _I'll be waiting, Jack."_ He touched the wall one last time. _"I love you."_

Then Ianto found himself staring at a wall. He could no longer see through it. It was just a wall.

Gwen stepped forward and grasped his shoulder.

Ianto ran a hand over his face. He had to carry on. He faced his team.

"Right. Okay. Tosh, anything on the scanners?"

He would carry on until Jack found him. No matter how long it took.

O_O_O

Time is a tricky thing. Dimensions don't all run at the same speed. Sometimes they even slowed down or sped up if something interfered.

For a while the two dimensions brought together by a crack in Time and Space ran along the same time frame. Then the crack sealed and Time changed the way it flowed.

Ianto Jones looked out at the bay. For him ten years had passed since he'd last seen Jack. It had been in the HUB. Jack had been closely monitoring just as he had and had come to the ruins of the HUB. They had stood inside the old Tourist office with only the wall between them.

But that had been ten years ago.

Now Ianto was struggling with his loneliness. He had searched for years for the tiniest fissure but it had been in vain. Only four years ago had he given up. It had taken nearly getting his team killed for him to realize the futility of it all. He had allowed his determination to cloud his judgment, to distract him. He couldn't allow that. So he had stopped looking. He figured that Jack had given up as well. At least they had their memories to keep them company. Although he knew Jack well enough to assume that Jack had found someone by now, even if it was casual. Jack never stayed lonely for long.

"Hey."

He looked over at Gwen and smiled.

"Hey yourself."

"Whatchya doing?"

"Thinking."

"Oi, don't do too much of that. Your brain will seep out your head!"

He laughed and shook his head. "Cheeky, you are, missy."

"Part of the job."

He tried to pretend he didn't see the sorrow in her eyes. She hid it almost as well as he hid his own. Ever since Gray things had been difficult for Gwen. She had very nearly lost Rhys and then she had miscarried thanks to the mess that was the 456. All in the space of a few months. He knew that a part of her blamed him. If Jack had been alive then maybe Rhys wouldn't have been hurt, maybe her little boy would have an older sibling. That was fine. He blamed himself too.

Owen and Tosh were the only ones to get their happy ending. A chance encounter a month after the 456 had caused something called nanogenes to be released and Owen had been restored. He had taken life by the horns and courted Tosh with a passion that Don Juan would be envious of.

But Ianto and Gwen suffered in silence.

"Wanna go grab a bite?" Ianto asked. His team was his life now. It was his fault that they had suffered so much. Gwen, after the whole Earth moving incident (and wasn't it ironic that Jack's doctor showed up too late to save him?), had turned control of Torchwood over to Ianto. He knew that she regretted it when he sacrificed that little girl to save everyone but he also knew that she knew there had been no other choice. She had left the room because she believed that it was her fault, that she had failed.

It was terrible that something so heartbreaking had made them grow closer.

"Fish and chips?" she suggested as she looped her arm through the one he extended.

"If that's what the lady wants."

O_O_O

They had just returned from their lunch when Tosh descended on them.

"Rift activity. I think."

"You think?" Gwen asked.

"It's kind of an echo. Well, a blip, really."

"Where?" Ianto asked. He was already checking his gun.

"The shopping center."

"Great!" Owen groused. "Friday night at the mall. Bloody perfect!"

"Shut up and get your kit, Owen."

"Sure Teaboy."

"You forget I outrank you and make the coffee."

"Shit!"

They piled into the SUV and Ianto drove them to the mall.

"Split up but keep your comms on," Ianto ordered. "We don't know what we're looking for so be careful."

Ianto glanced down at the wrist strap he wore. It had been Jack's but he had taken possession of it after Jack had died. Hart had wanted it, claimed to have all rights to it, but Ianto had held a gun to his head and the other man had backed away. Now Ianto used it as Jack had done. As a portable Rift monitor.

He frowned. The blip showed that something had come in through the Rift but they couldn't pinpoint where.

_Guess I'll head this way..._ He started in the direction of the bathrooms.

After Jack had been buried, Ianto had locked himself in Jack's bunk for a week. During that time he had stumbled upon a secret panel on the floor. Inside was a box full of all things Jack. Including a collection of diaries and handwritten manuals. He spent that week (and many more) reading through the manuals. Jack had written instructions on the bits of technology (like the wrist strap) that he had brought with him so long ago. The diaries had been placed in a box and locked away along with everything else of Jack's. Only the wrist strap had been left out. It was a useful tool and a connection to Jack.

The manuals had included how to use and understand the wrist strap. But while Jack had had over a century to learn to use it, Ianto had only had a little more than a decade.

Which was why he had to take an educated guess as to which direction to take.

The bathroom was located in a back corridor between a lift and the car park. The wrist strap beeped. If he was reading this right then whatever had come through was inside. He pushed open the door and went in.

At least there was no one else around. He slowly made his way down, peering into each stall.

_Clink_.

The last stall. Why was it always the last stall?

His footsteps seemed to echo in his ears as he reached the stall door. He raised his gun and swallowed . This was the hard part. Not knowing what he was facing.

"Come on out. Put your hands up. I have a gun."

"You still wear that aftershave? Thank God..."

His breath caught in his throat.

The stall door opened.

"And you're wearing a red shirt too. God you smell good."

A pair of tired blue eyes looked out at him from a pale face. A scraggly beard didn't disguise the smile that he knew so well. There was also a familiar scent. It was a scent that had always brought him comfort before.

"Jack..."

Before he knew what was happening, Jack's arms were around him, holding him tight.

"I found you..." Jack rasped out. "Oh God I found you."

"Is it really you?" Ianto asked as he pulled back. He ran a hand over the beard.

"Crack in a dimensional wall? Gray shot you, I gave up immortality to save you but in my world, you died-"

"When a three-headed dodo farted on me?"

They laughed.

"Yeah, something like that," said Jack. He turned his head and coughed.

"You alright?"

"Yeah. I've never done a dimensional jump before. I feel like I was on a roller coaster and my stomach got left behind."

"Have you ever ridden a roller coaster?"

"No," Jack said with a grin. "But I've read horror stories. From Owen."

Ianto smiled at him. "You came."

Jack cupped Ianto's face in his hands and kissed him.

"Of course I did. I said I would."

"I know but... But it's been ten years. I kinda figured that you would..."

"Give up on it?" Jack shook his head. "Never."

Jack pulled Ianto back into his arms. It felt so damn good to hold him again.

"It was ten years for you but only ten _months_ for me."

"That's weird."

"Yeah. It happens."

They looked at each other.

"I've missed you so damn much, Ianto."

Ianto smiled and touched the beard again.

"I have a surprise for you, back at the HUB."

"Oh?"

O_O_O

One hour (and several excited squeals from Gwen, Owen and Tosh) later Jack had showered, trimmed his beard (not shaved, Ianto said he looked rugged) and had a cup of coffee. Now Ianto gave him his surprise.

"My coat!"

Jack laughed as he shed the one he wore and pulled on his old RAF coat.

"Standard Torchwood policy," Gwen said with a grin. "All personal belongings of a Torchwood agent must be placed into storage upon their death."

"And that," Owen said. "Includes the coat."

Jack spun around and laughed. He had missed this coat. It had been a part of him for so long and now he had it back. He had _Ianto_ back.

"Okay you lot," said Ianto. He stood in front of (Jack's) his office with his arms folded. "Go home. Gwen, say hello to Rhys. Owen, it's your turn to do the dishes. Tosh, don't let him try to get out of it again."

Gwen and Tosh hugged Jack and Owen clapped him on the back.

Within minutes the Captain and Ianto were alone in the HUB. And this time there was no invisible wall between them.

"So..."

"So..."

Jack grinned. "The layout still the same?"

"Yep."

"Care for a game of Hide-n-Seek?"

"Naked?"

"Is there any other way?"

"Nope."

Ianto pulled from his pocket a stopwatch. He clicked the button on the top.

"Five minutes, Captain. And counting."

Jack threw off the coat and he started on his shirt buttons. "Winner takes all?"

"Oh, definitely. Wouldn't have it any other way."

With a laugh the chase began.

O_O_O_O

End.

 


End file.
